Thursday, August 14, 2008

If there were any distasteful stereotypes still lurking about the Japanese being timid little people, Japan's men's beach volleyball team likely put them to rest today.

Asahi-Shiratori forced Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal to a third set today, putting up a plethora of stuff blocks and hitting lots of big juicy spikes. The Japanese got to match point twice, but Gibb-Rosy fought back, and a final stuff by Gibb allowed the U.S. advance, 21-15, 19-21, 18-16 (results).

With this victory, all U.S. men's and women's beach volleyball teams have advanced to the elimination round of 16.